DETAINED Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada is considering asking the Sandiganbayan for permission to allow him to have an operation on his shoulders for supposed calcium deposits.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. LYN RILLON/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
In an interview after his bail hearing for plunder over the pork barrel scam Monday, Estrada said his doctors recommended an arthroscopic surgery on his painful shoulders where calcium deposits supposedly accumulated.
“Unfortunately, iyong aking doctor, a shoulder specialist, recommended an arthroscopic surgery. Pero pinag-iisipan ko pa kung magpapa-opera ako,” Estrada said.
He said his decision for an operation will depend if he could endure the pain on his shoulders, which he has complained to the court for his request for leave to attend hospital check-ups and therapy sessions.
Estrada said the operation may only take an hour and possible three days of hospital confinement.
“As long as I can still bear the pain, OK lang siguro. But kapag hindi na, kapag unbearable na ang pain siguro, that’s the time that I will decide if I will have the surgery,” Estrada said.
“But right now, hindi pa naman siguro. Dadaanin ko muna siguro sa therapy,” he added.
Estrada and Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. are under police custody at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in connection with the pork barrel scam. Another accused Juan Ponce Enrile is under hospital arrest at Camp Crame.
Napoles, meanwhile, is detained at the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig with co-accused former representatives Rizalina Seachon Lanete and Edgar Valdez.
In an explosive bank inquiry report by the Anti-Money Laundering Council, Senator Estrada is accused of using conduits such as Francis Yengko and Juan Ng to receive his kickbacks from Napoles. He was also accused of penning the signatures of Ng in the conduit bank accounts, reminiscent of the Jose Velarde account opened by his father Joseph Estrada, who was convicted of plunder, to stash away his ill-gotten wealth when he was president. AC